Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan - Part 3

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 2 with:

 

(p.259) " This process goes on continually, through plants and animals to human

beings. It appears that the same forces which are at work in matter and

sub-human life operate also in the human person and in human consciousness. The

same principle of matter and form working together can account for the whole

evolution of humanity. But what happens in human beings is that this organizing

power, this form, begins to emerge into consciousness. We have seen that there

is an organizing power at every level and this organising power has the

character of a mind. Mind, it has been said, reveals itself as " a pattern of

self-organisation and a set of dynamic relationships " . In this sense it can be

said that mind is present in matter from the beginning. Form in Aristotle's

sense of the word is a power of intelligence. It creates order. It causes the

self-organisation of all organic structures and creates a set of dynamic

relationships. So mind is present in matter, and in plants and animals, and that

mind becomes conscious in us. And so, in a very exact sense, it can be said that

matter becomes conscious in human beings. This process which has been going on

from the beginning of time becomes conscious in us. (p.260) It evolves into

consciousness. We are that stage of evolution at which the material universe is

emerging into consciousness in each one of us. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)

Chapter 12, p.259-260

 

Here now, is Part 3.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan - Part 3

 

(p.260) At first this consciousness in us is, as we saw, a global consciousness.

The child and the early man is each aware of himself simply as part of the

physical universe. This is a beginning of a conscious awareness of oneself as

part of this whole physical organism. Later there is awareness of oneself as

part of a human organisation, of a human family, of human relationships. So the

human person gradually emerges into consciousness. It is a fact, however, that

all of us live in a state of half-consciousness for most of our lives. Most of

our living goes on without our being conscious of it. All the activity of the

atoms, the molecules, the cells in our bodies, for instance, functions of itself

without our being conscious of it. And most of the physical functions of the

body go on without our awareness. Only certain parts of all of this come into

consciousness. We are emerging into consciousness all the time from the

unconscious. Every night we go back into the unconscious. It is thought that in

deep sleep we go right back to the original unconscious state, before anything

emerged. In dreams we begin to come out into consciousness to some extent, and

when we wake up we wake into a waking consciousness which is growing from the

unconscious.

 

All this of course is a continual process. From childhood we are growing and our

consciousness develops. Certain people develop their consciousness far more than

others. Some remain at a very limited level of consciousness all their lives,

while others gradually explore the further ranges of consciousness. This is what

interests us now, that it is possible for consciousness to develop or expand

beyond the present state. We at this stage have emerged into a certain level of

consciousness. We can control our bodies to some extent and of course with

modern medicine we have another dimension of physical control. (p.261) We can

also control our environment to some extent, but we are still exposed to the

tremendous forces of the unconscious. In the same way, at the psychological

level we have our emotional life and although to some extent we can control our

emotions, they are very largely beyond our control most of the time. Emotions

arise from infancy and from childhood habits and these are extremely difficult

to control. Only as they gradually emerge into consciousness do we gain a

measure of control over them.

 

In the evolutionary and developmental process, once we reach the level of

language we have already crossed a barrier because with language it becomes

possible to form symbols and an inner world comes into being. There is the outer

world around us consisting of all the energies of matter and nature, and now

with language and symbol we create an inner world where we represent, through

the imagination, what we take to be the structure of the universe around us.

Outside us are all these energies at work, but through our senses, feelings,

imagination, reason and will, through all the faculties of our being, we

structure a universe around us. It is a very limited universe and a very limited

understanding that we have. It is always that we are structuring this appearance

of the world around us. It is not as it really is. The world is infinitely

greater than we perceive it. We only perceive those aspects of nature, matter

and the energies of existence which are reflected through our senses, our

feelings, our imagination, our mind and our will, through the whole of our human

organism, and this is our particular way of perceiving the universe. So matter

emerges into consciousness in us and we create this inner world by which we can

represent the world around us and that can gradually be extended. The whole aim

of pure science and of philosophy is to get a more and more accurate knowledge

of the world around, but we know now that understanding is always conditioned by

the limitations of our minds.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith) Chapter 12, p.260-262

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0